BOLT, a mobile browser developed by Bitstream, has now become available for public beta after a private beta which consisted of more than 30,000 users.

The company claims that, “BOLT features unrivaled speed – routinely 25 percent faster, and as much as 50 percent faster, than the next fastest competitor in speed tests.”

We haven’t seen a head-to-head battle yet between BOLT, Safari, Opera, Firefox and the Google Browser, but it would be interesting to see nonetheless.

Additionally, BOLT is said to conserve battery life, and to minimize data transmissions allowing users to browse longer without recharging batteries while consuming less data. Plus, BOLT supports streaming video from YouTube, vids.myspace.com, video.yahoo.com, blip.tv, dailymotion.com, and metacafe.com. Otherwise, it seems to do what every other browser does: uses a magnification finder so that users can navigate to specific sections of large web pages and then zoom in to display their selections.

The public beta version of Bolt can be downloaded now. Also check out this PDF to see if your phone is compatible. Notable phones are the Samsung Instinct, Behold, Nokia E90 and almost every Blackberry.

Chris’s Opinion
Users seem very content with their current browsers, so BOLT is stepping into a market that is going to be tough to try to get a hold of. Unless Bitstream’s claims of BOLT really being that much faster are true, it may not be worth it for users to run BOLT. However, let’s keep in mind that it is available on lower-end phones and some Blackberries instead of the iPhone and the G1.

Either way though, also remember that users always want a faster browsing experience and one that doesn’t kill their battery life. Perhaps BOLT could hold true to its claims. If it does, other browsers may have something to learn from BOLT.

Reader Comments

dyrt.napr

“Users seem very content with their current browsers…”

I can’t speak for “users” in general, but you can count me out of this happy group. Currently installed on my (admittedly retarded) Sprint Mogul I have: PIE (WM6 version), Opera Mini and Mobile 9.5 beta, Skyfire and Netfront 3.5. Each and every one of them does some things right, but even more things that make me want to get medieval on their respect development teams.

The best thing I can say about this frustrating situation is that at least there’s competition in the marketplace — hence, I welcome Bitstream’s foray. So, I’m off now to give it a try…